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THE PROMISE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

THE BIOMEDICAL AND BIOTECHNOLOGY FIELDS ARE PROMISING AREAS FOR ENGINEERS AND IT PROFESSIONALS. AN AGING POPULATION AND THE DEMANDS FOR IMPROVED HEALTH WORLDWIDE PUT THESE FIELDS AT THE HEART OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF IMPACTFUL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. JOB OPPORTUNITIES ARE PROJECTED TO GROW INTO THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. ACCORDING TO THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, EMPLOYMENT FOR BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS IS EXPECTED TO CLIMB 27% BETWEEN 2012 AND 2022. NOT ONLY DO BOTH FIELDS PROMISE CONTINUED DEMAND FOR ENGINEERING AND IT SKILLS, BUT ALSO THE CHANCE TO WORK IN AREAS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS.

 

RECEIVING RECOGNITION FOR EFFORTS AT ILLUMINA

AS senior director of engineering at San Diego-based Illumina, Francisco Garcia enjoys working with brilliant people on exciting technologies that make a difference. Illumina develops innovative sequencing and array-based solutions for genomic analysis. The tools the company develops are used in discovering new drugs, disease research, and the development of molecular tests within clinical labs. Garcia’s work at Illumina stirs a passion for him. “For me, it’s meaningful to know that the work we are doing is having a direct impact on people’s lives,” he says. Garcia’s interest in building and creating new things traces back to age ten, when he was programming computers. It was that love of getting computers to move physical objects that got him thinking about a computer career. Engineering and software engineering seemed to be a natural fit.

 

He attended Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and received awards and recognition that included being an Eastman Kodak Scholar, a National Science Foundation Fellow, and a Merrill Presidential Scholar award recipient. He was also named one of two “Outstanding Graduating Engineers of the Class of 1992” by the Cornell Daily Sun. Garcia graduated from Cornell with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering in 1992 and also received a PhD from Cornell in 1999, where he studied signal processing applied to space plasma and atmospheric physics.

 

Garcia joined Illumina in 2000 as the result of a conversation with a friend from graduate school. His friend, who had already started working at Illumina, noted that the company had a great future. Garcia needed little convincing, and the job has worked out well on all counts. Both he and the company have earned recognition for their efforts in the biomedical field. In 2009, Garcia received the annual Illumina Innovation Award, acknowledging “it was a deep honor being recognized among my peers who themselves are generally regarded as being among the best in the world.”

 

The company has also received plenty of recognition, most recently named the “Smartest Company in the World” by the MIT Technology Review in early 2014. The work at Illumina can be challenging “in a good way,” says Garcia. “Besides the many technical challenges we face, the other challenge is having the emotional intelligence to work effectively with a team. It can be difficult to know how to manage different personalities and work styles while maintaining a collaborative culture especially as the organization grows.”

 

It is that same ability of working collaboratively new employees need to have to move their career forward at Illumina.

 

The best career/job advice Garcia says he received came from one of Illumina’s founders, John Stuelpnagel. “He told me that to be an effective general manager I needed to learn to compartmentalize. If I received bad news at one meeting, I could not let that affect me at the next, and I certainly could not let it show,” he says. Garcia adds that kind of advice is relevant no matter where you are in your career. “Do what you love and try to find a company you genuinely care about and whose vision resonates with yours,” he adds.

 

Illumina is expanding rapidly and is hiring for all business functions. Visit the careers section on the company’s website (www.illumina.com/careers) to learn more about opportunities with the company.

 

IMPACTING INDIVIDUALS IN NEED AT PHILIPS HEALTHCARE

Passion is a critical ingredient that drives Alessandro Agnello in his role as software development engineer at Philips Healthcare, located in Andover, MA. Philips Healthcare, Agnello explains, is in a unique position to deliver meaningful innovation to its customers. “This is what attracted me to the company - knowing I can work on projects that truly impact an individual in need,” he says.

 

Agnello graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Salem State College (Salem, MA) in 2008. He received a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell (Lowell, MA) in 2011. He is now pursuing a doctorate from the same school and expects to graduate in 2016.

 

Engineering was a natural fit for Agnello, who always enjoyed puzzles and the challenge of solving complex problems. It didn’t hurt that he was intrigued with electronics and how they are managed. The combination led him to his career as a software engineer. He started at Philips Healthcare, an international provider of clinical and non-clinical products and services, in December 2013. The company’s products and services range from advanced molecular imaging and ultrasound to consulting and customer service solutions.

 

Agnello’s background in cloud-based environments has given him a solid skill set in thinking through complex problems. “Additionally, it has given me the ability to learn how to apply different design patterns into different environments that prove scalability and performance concerns,” he says. His background is in direct use at Philips, where he works on leading-edge technologies, including those in the cloud environment. He is currently contributing to the development of Philips’ new cloud-based Health- Suite Digital Platform, which will connect patients and clinicians. “I am working on some very exciting projects and believe I have a voice that matters,” he says.

 

One particular six-month project had Agnello rewriting the algorithm for electrocardiogram lead detection. “I spent a lot of time trying to understand and re-evaluate complex state machines,” he says. “The project proved to me that I can take complex components, bring it down to sub-modules, understand the interactions, and see where the faults were while making the algorithm more efficient.”

 

The life of a Philips software development engineer does have its challenges. “As an engineer, it can be challenging to know that not every feature can be added within a project,” Agnello says. “I understand, though, that we are creating tools and products that are designed to meet the customer’s needs, tools that impact people’s lives for the better.”

 

Philips’ goal is to improve the lives of three billion people per year by 2025. Accelerating people’s personal growth and performance is critical to reaching that goal. The company recognizes and rewards top performers and makes development a year-round part of the business. “There is great value in the field of software engineering at Philips, in being a problem solver,” Agnello says.

 

The best career advice he ever received? No matter how hard some problems may be able solve, there is always a solution. “You may have to step out of your comfort zone,” Agnello acknowledges. “But don’t forget to have fun. You are an engineer for a reason.”

 

For those with the passion for working for a company like Philips, job opportunities can be found at www.careers.philips.com.

 

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AT COVANCE

Relationships influence careers choices and career growth. To be successful in a company or an industry such as biomed and biotechnology, investing in relationships with those around you can make a difference. Debasis Panda understood the importance of relationships growing up in the township of Rourkela, a township in India. The community was built around a steel manufacturing factory, a source for employment for many in the area. With many of the work opportunities coming from the factory, a career in engineering was a given for many growing up in the town. “Our parents wanted us to graduate as a mechanical engineer from the local college and follow in their footsteps by finding employment in the steel plant,” says Panda.

 

He graduated from the National Institute of Technology (Rourkela, India) in 1999 with his degree in mechanical engineering. But during his second year, Panda developed other interests. The school received grants for an upgraded computer lab during a time the Internet was becoming more a part of India’s mainstream. “What drew me to the computer initially was the Internet. I was always rushing to find a computer during breaks and browsing the rich world of the Internet,” he says.

 

This led Panda to take elective coursework in computer programming. He found he enjoyed writing code much better than working mechanical drawings. “All through my education and my transition into my career, I have kept an open mind towards opportunities,” he says. “I did not let my degree in mechanical engineering decide what kind of employment I would pursue. The thought of getting boxed into specific boundaries scared me.”

 

Panda joined Covance (Princeton, NJ) in 2006 as software developer. The company is a drug development services company that provides a range of product development services worldwide to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

 

With little prior pharmaceutical background, and not sure what to expect when he arrived at the company, Panda started looking forward to a new set of challenges. “IT offered me a great opportunity. I realized that by using my foundational skills in math and problem solving, I could seek different challenges, industry segments, and not have to do the same work every day,” he adds.

 

Over the next eight years, Panda notes his job has changed almost every year. He went from being a software developer to leading a team within a year after joining Covance. He has worked on projects stretching across different service lines at the company. Each project had different and unique challenges. “I grew more into leadership over the years and the balance of solving technical problems along with organizational issues excited me.”

 

For those just starting out, Panda maintains it is okay if you don’t have your career path completely figured out. Follow your passion first, he suggests, build on it and keep thinking about where that can lead. “Very soon you will know exactly where you want your career to go,” he says. “Don’t expect results without hard work and perseverance, and don’t give up too soon.”

 

New employee success at Covance starts with not underestimating the importance of relationships –a lesson he learned while growing up in India – and building institutional knowledge. “If you are a new employee it’s easy to just stay focused in your job and not look beyond the boundaries of your cube,” Panda says. “Besides skill sets, building relationships and making sure people are aware of what you are good at is critical as you try to move ahead.”

 

Also key is being able to differentiate between growth and promotion. “Growth should lead to promotion and moving up in the organization,” says Panda. “It is not the other way around. It involves you investing your time and energy.”

 

For those looking for careers at Covance, browse opportunities and post a resume at http://careers.covance.com. Also be sure to check LinkedIn for any connections and opportunities at the company.

 

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT AT ITW MEDICAL

Preparationis critical to any successful career, and Yuneidy Lopez says that the best career advice she ever received is to make sure she always prepared. As quality engineer at ITW Medical (Hebron, IL), her responsibilities include addressing customer issues. The company is a manufacturer of custom and standard fluid management, flow control, and filtration components used in the medical device field. Lopez works closely with the quality manager to put in place corrective/preventative actions to address customer problems. “The beauty of it is that you get to see improvement from the systems you put in place,” she says.

 

Lopez was attending a conference of Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers in October 2013 when she met Rachel Morris of ITW Medical. Morris told her about a summer internship the company was offering. Interested in the company and the program, Lopez interviewed and accepted the internship in May 2014, just a few days after graduating from Florida Internatioal University in Miami with a degree in biomedical engineering. “I have been with the company for six months and love my job as quality engineer,” she says.

 

Having the necessary knowledge is critical when entering the work field, Lopez says. Being able to communicate that knowledge is imperative. So is learning to work with a team. Lopez learned that last lesson well from an experience in a senior design class. Her professor chose the teams based on the skills of the individuals, and team members could not make any changes to its makeup. “It taught us how to get past the differences among the team members and accomplish the goals of the team,” she says. “It helped us learn how to deal with conflicts in such a way that the team would not be affected, since essentially it was a team and if one person failed, the team failed.”

 

These are skills she took into the workplace. Still, there is a learning curve. “I think the biggest challenge I encountered was effectively communicating ideas and directions with large audiences,” she says. “Through experience, I learned how to differentiate my audiences and how to properly address them. Not everyone responds the same way when addressing a group all at once. It can be very challenging to get the message across. However, it is all a matter of practice.”

 

College students need to be patient and keep their options open in the field, she adds. “Apply to all the jobs that meet your criteria. The hiring process takes time.”

 

Career opportunities at ITW Medical can be found at its corporate website at the following site: http://www.itw.com/careers/.

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